Post by phrost on Feb 8, 2006 16:14:53 GMT -5
news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060207/sc_afp/wtouseubiotechfarm_060207194410
GM food: What the fuss is all about
Tue Feb 7, 2:44 PM ET
GENEVA (AFP) - In Mesopotamia about 5,000 years ago, there occurred one of the biggest events in human history: Homo sapiens discovered that by penning animals and growing crops, he no longer had to hunt for food or gather it.
Until a handful of years ago, the way in which our ancestors improved food species remained fundamentally unchanged over the millennia. Through splicing and cross-breeding, farmers introduced new genes into plants and animals in order to boost the yield.
This time-honoured method led to IR8, the rice plant which drove the Green Revolution that staved off famine in South Asia in the 1960s. And it gave us the cows, pigs and chickens of today which deliver more milk, beef, ham and eggs than ever before.
But in 1972, unknown to farmers at the time, the millennia-old methods of agricultural breeding changed forever with the creation of the first recombinant DNA molecule.
Scientists took a microscopic lab organism, cut open its genetic code with enzymes and using a natural "Trojan horse" called a plasmid, inserted genes of their own choice: the first genetically modified organism (GMO) was born.
The discovery was swiftly harnessed for medicine, creating for instance in 1980 a bacterium to make a vaccine for hepatitis and in 1982 a germ that made the diabetes hormone insulin.
Other GM medicines are used to combat cancer and dwarfism and the technology also makes engineered mice -- rodents that are tailor-made to mimick the symptoms of human diseases and thus serve as a useful way of testing new drugs or theories.
There has been almost no controversy as to the role of GMOs in medicine.
But in agriculture, the situation is quite different.
GM foods have ignited an enormous storm, politically as well as economically, which led to Tuesday's landmark ruling by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The big champion of GM foods is the United States, which accuses the
European Union (EU) of erecting de-facto trade barriers against GM products that Washington insists are safe.
Ranged against the US is deep-rooted public suspicion about GMOs in Europe, a sentiment sharpened by a series of food safety scandals and the activism of a powerful green movement.
Four big crops -- corn (maize), soya, cotton and colza (rape or canola) -- comprise the lion's share of GM food grown at the moment. Other crops that have been commercialized or are in the pipeline are GM tomatoes, squash and papaya.
Two kinds of modification characterize this first generation of GM crops.
One is to insert genes to make field crops resistant to a specific herbicide, which means that the farmer can easily spray that weedkiller without also killing the crop.
The other is to put in genes that cause the plant to exude a toxin that kills insect pests, such as the corn borer, which attacks corn plants.
By general consensus, this early generation of plants has so far had no effect on human health. GM foods have been part of the US diet for a decade, and they have not had any discernable impact on wellbeing.
Nor has there been, so far, any visible cost to the environment -- certainly nothing on the scale traditionally wrought by farmers, the biggest wreckers of habitat and biodiversity.
Indeed, promoters of GM technology argue that modified crops are beneficial, as they mean that farmers use less agricultural chemicals.
Environmentalists though say that not enough time has elapsed to assess the long-term impacts of GM crops, even though a second, more sophisticated generation of plants is about to emerge from the labs.
They say that that watchdog agencies are being bullied by Big Pharma to bend or abandon the principle of precaution.
Many scientists share this concern. Their worry is that the inserted genes in GM crop contaminate other species through pollen drifting on the wind.
Native species could be altered or wiped out, "superweeds" could be created that are impervious to herbicides.
Another looming issue is GM animals. Scientists have been genetically engineering cows, pigs and salmon, but none has so far been commercially introduced. Apart from their unknown impact on human health, these animals could cross-breed with other species if they escape from confinement.
"GM varieties should not be governed by the laws of the market alone, otherwise we are heading for a catastrophe," warns Guy Riba, deputy director-general of the French Institute for Agronomy Research (INRA).
A woman carries maize on her head. Four big crops -- corn (maize), soya, cotton and colza (rape or canola) -- comprise the lion's share of GM food grown at the moment. Other crops that have been commercialized or are in the pipeline are GM tomatoes, squash and papaya.(AFP/File/Mauricio Lima)
GM food: What the fuss is all about
Tue Feb 7, 2:44 PM ET
GENEVA (AFP) - In Mesopotamia about 5,000 years ago, there occurred one of the biggest events in human history: Homo sapiens discovered that by penning animals and growing crops, he no longer had to hunt for food or gather it.
Until a handful of years ago, the way in which our ancestors improved food species remained fundamentally unchanged over the millennia. Through splicing and cross-breeding, farmers introduced new genes into plants and animals in order to boost the yield.
This time-honoured method led to IR8, the rice plant which drove the Green Revolution that staved off famine in South Asia in the 1960s. And it gave us the cows, pigs and chickens of today which deliver more milk, beef, ham and eggs than ever before.
But in 1972, unknown to farmers at the time, the millennia-old methods of agricultural breeding changed forever with the creation of the first recombinant DNA molecule.
Scientists took a microscopic lab organism, cut open its genetic code with enzymes and using a natural "Trojan horse" called a plasmid, inserted genes of their own choice: the first genetically modified organism (GMO) was born.
The discovery was swiftly harnessed for medicine, creating for instance in 1980 a bacterium to make a vaccine for hepatitis and in 1982 a germ that made the diabetes hormone insulin.
Other GM medicines are used to combat cancer and dwarfism and the technology also makes engineered mice -- rodents that are tailor-made to mimick the symptoms of human diseases and thus serve as a useful way of testing new drugs or theories.
There has been almost no controversy as to the role of GMOs in medicine.
But in agriculture, the situation is quite different.
GM foods have ignited an enormous storm, politically as well as economically, which led to Tuesday's landmark ruling by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The big champion of GM foods is the United States, which accuses the
European Union (EU) of erecting de-facto trade barriers against GM products that Washington insists are safe.
Ranged against the US is deep-rooted public suspicion about GMOs in Europe, a sentiment sharpened by a series of food safety scandals and the activism of a powerful green movement.
Four big crops -- corn (maize), soya, cotton and colza (rape or canola) -- comprise the lion's share of GM food grown at the moment. Other crops that have been commercialized or are in the pipeline are GM tomatoes, squash and papaya.
Two kinds of modification characterize this first generation of GM crops.
One is to insert genes to make field crops resistant to a specific herbicide, which means that the farmer can easily spray that weedkiller without also killing the crop.
The other is to put in genes that cause the plant to exude a toxin that kills insect pests, such as the corn borer, which attacks corn plants.
By general consensus, this early generation of plants has so far had no effect on human health. GM foods have been part of the US diet for a decade, and they have not had any discernable impact on wellbeing.
Nor has there been, so far, any visible cost to the environment -- certainly nothing on the scale traditionally wrought by farmers, the biggest wreckers of habitat and biodiversity.
Indeed, promoters of GM technology argue that modified crops are beneficial, as they mean that farmers use less agricultural chemicals.
Environmentalists though say that not enough time has elapsed to assess the long-term impacts of GM crops, even though a second, more sophisticated generation of plants is about to emerge from the labs.
They say that that watchdog agencies are being bullied by Big Pharma to bend or abandon the principle of precaution.
Many scientists share this concern. Their worry is that the inserted genes in GM crop contaminate other species through pollen drifting on the wind.
Native species could be altered or wiped out, "superweeds" could be created that are impervious to herbicides.
Another looming issue is GM animals. Scientists have been genetically engineering cows, pigs and salmon, but none has so far been commercially introduced. Apart from their unknown impact on human health, these animals could cross-breed with other species if they escape from confinement.
"GM varieties should not be governed by the laws of the market alone, otherwise we are heading for a catastrophe," warns Guy Riba, deputy director-general of the French Institute for Agronomy Research (INRA).
A woman carries maize on her head. Four big crops -- corn (maize), soya, cotton and colza (rape or canola) -- comprise the lion's share of GM food grown at the moment. Other crops that have been commercialized or are in the pipeline are GM tomatoes, squash and papaya.(AFP/File/Mauricio Lima)